Newsletter

After 11-minute deliberation, South Georgia inmate gets 20 years

Appling County jury takes little time to convict man of beating two guards at pre-release center

Antinto Seantre Johnson, an inmate who got 20 years in prison for beating two guards

Antinto Seantre Johnson

An Appling County jury took just 11 minutes to convict a Waycross man of assaulting two guards at a pre-release center after which a judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison, officials said.

Ironically Antinto Seantre Johnson, 34, was just three weeks from release in April 2012 when he attacked two officers at the Appling County Pre-release Center. He injured one so badly he had to retire on disability, said Lee J. Sweat, the Appling County chief deputy.

“It took about a half a dozen to get him subdued,’’ Sweat said.

Assistant District Attorney Jan Kennedy prosecuted the case Wednesday and jury came back with the quick verdict of guilty on charges of aggravated battery and obstruction of an officer with violence.

Superior Court Judge E.M. Wilkes III then sentenced Johnson to 25 years, 20 in prison and five on probation.

Johnson was in the pre-release center completing a prison sentence for possession of cocaine and possession of a firearm by a felon.

District Attorney Jackie Johnson thanked the jurors for giving their time, although it wasn’t much.